


Conserving Air

by Thea_Stevens



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Getting Together, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hydra (Marvel), M/M, Missions Gone Wrong, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, SHIELD, Scuba Diving, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Underwater
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-08 11:02:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18893317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thea_Stevens/pseuds/Thea_Stevens
Summary: Tony and Steve are supposed to go do surveillance on a underwater hydra base what could go wrong?





	1. There's Something Over There

“Are you sure we can’t just go down there in the suit?”  


“Yes Steve we need precision and stealth and although I love my suit it is not made for those things.”  


“And you’re sure you don’t want me to just go down there by myself.”  


“We talked about this Steve we need two people just in case something goes wrong.”  


Tony and Steve stood on the deck of a SHIELD issued boat, getting ready for a dive down to a Hydra base under the Atlantic Ocean. Steve questioned once again why he came on this mission in the first place after all he had no love for the frigid water that lay below the boat but when he heard Tony say he was going on this mission he automatically volunteered to go with just in case tony needed any insistence down there.  


In theory it should be a quick op all they needed to do was swim down film as much of the compound as they can and swim back up but who know what lies between them and the facility seventy-six meters below.  


“You still with us Cap?”  


“Yeah Stark, just thinking about my last dip in the Ocean.”  


“You can still back out there’s plenty of capable agents here to take your place.”  


“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.”  


“Whatever you say Cap”  


Just then a shield agent came up to the two of them did some last minute equipment checks and gave them a thumbs up “ Everything seems to be working fine be safe out there , and remember we won’t be able to talk to you while you’re down there to avoid being detected so watch out for each other.”  


With that Tony turned to Steve and said “Shall we” while proceeding to jump in to the water.  


Steve followed him of the side of the boat and although they’d done tons of training the water always came as a shock to him. The pure coldness of it and that helpless feeling he always got following it. The plane hitting the ice flashed in his head and he tried to shake off the panic closing in. He heard Tony saying something and he snapped out of it.  


“Come on Cap we have got to get going they said it’s gonna take around a half hour to get to the base.”  


“Yeah, yeah I’m coming”  


As Tony and him traveled deeper and deeper the light diminished until it was just the lights on their suits guiding there way and despite the heaters in the suits Steve felt that he was getting colder the further down they got. Eventually after a while of silence Steve thought he saw something in the distance “Hey Tony you see something over there”  


“Yeah must be an animal or something”  


Steve looked at their depth meter about fifty meters down which meant they had twenty-six meters left to the base. When he looked up he saw it again “Tony over there!” he pointed over Tony’s left shoulder and as tony whipped around they both saw a pair of eyes looking back at them.  


“That’s a shark!” With that the two of them put on a burst of speed using the propulsion built into their suits.  


“I thought they said these suits were cloaked”  


“Apparently not against sharks”  


“I hate SHIELD”  


“Steve it’s gaining we better split up”  


“Okay but we can’t go too far away otherwise our coms won’t work anymore alright?”  


“Just swim Steve”  


As Tony turned back to look behind him he saw the shark began to close in on Steve. Then as if in slow motion he saw the shark sink his teeth into Steve’s shoulder and in the process disconnect one of Steve’s air tanks that then went tumbling off into the darkness. He heard himself shout for flares and shoot one off lighting up murky water in front of him. This distracted the shark long enough for him to swim over and grab Steve and start swimming downward again.  


In his head this made perfect sense they were closer to the base then to the surface and Steve wouldn’t last long with only the one tank of air so if he could get into the base they would have air and the supplies he needed to wrap Steve’s shoulder only problem was how he was going to break into the base he would just have to count on them not having many guards which seemed likely since who in their right mind would try and break into a base at the bottom of the ocean.  


“Tony” he heard Steve say. Thank goodness he’s awake tony thought  


“Tony, shouldn’t we be going back up I’m not gonna make it there my other tank must have a hole in it too.” And as Tony look back he saw that sure enough Steve’s tank did have a hole in it.  


“Fuck, we have to keep going down they’ll have air in that base I’m sure.”  


“How do you plan to even get in tony” there was fear in Steve’s voice now.  


“I’ve got a code scrambler that should get us through the doors then we just need to grab the stuff avoid the guards and get back out, easy. Now stop talking you’re gonna use up all your air before we get there”  


Steve nodded yes but Tony could tell he thought it was too risky but running out of air on the way up would be even worse than going to the base at least in there Steve had a chance Tony knew they could fight their way through if they needed to. “I think I can see the base how’s your air doing?”  
“I’m at five percent.”  


“Alright I think I see an airlock on that side over there head to your left and turn off your light”  


Tony got to the airlock first and pulled up his scrambler. It would take almost three minutes to get them in although looking at Steve he didn’t know if they had that long.  


“Air?”  


“Two percent” Fuck, they most definitely did not have three minutes if it was dropping that quickly  


“Okay Steve don’t freak out but let me know when it reaches zero then I’m gonna need you to open your helmet for me and we’ll have share my air until the doors open”  


“It’s at zero tony”  


Steve and tony took one last breath and undid there helmets tony grabbed Steve and pulled him close and kissed him he read somewhere that this should work to recycle there air since the helmets weren’t meant to be shared with another person. Steve look confused at first but then he seemed to catch on to what tony was trying to do an opened his mouth to the kiss.


	2. I Wanted To

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They got in now all they need to do is get back out.

Tony was almost sad when he saw his scrambler blink green and the airlock doors open up for them. He kept hold of Steve and swam them both in and then jabbed the button to flush the airlock of the water. During the flush Tony lost hold of Steve and saw him lying on the ground “Tony” Steve groaned as Tony ran over to him. 

“We have to move Steve there’s going to be guards coming this way.” Tony helped Steve to his feet and opened the door to the inside of the compound. They hurried down the dim halls and ducked into a dark room. 

Tony turned on his headlight again and looked around the dark room it looked like it was for storage. He almost laughed at their luck he should be able to find a new suit for Steve in here somewhere but first he needed to get him out of his current one.

“Steve, how are you doing over there?” Tony asked and looked over to see that he was shivering. How could he be so dumb he forgot the heating systems must have stopped working after he got bit. 

“Steve hang in there let’s get you out of this.” Tony then started to strip the solider out of the dive suit. Once he got it off and Steve was in just his boxers he left to go find something to wrap him up in to help fend off the cold. After digging through several boxes of junk he found some rags to help stop the bleeding, an old first aid kit and some sheets to cover Steve with. He’d have to go look for a new wet suit after he looked at Steve’s shoulder. 

When he got back Steve was shivering even harder “Tony, I’m freezing.” Steve said through chattering teeth. 

“I know here I couldn’t find any blankets but I found some sheets and I’ll come and look at your shoulder as soon as I get out of my suit” 

“Tony, we can’t get back out of here, we’re going to get caught.”

“Don’t say that Steve we’re going to be fine.”

“No, I was supposed to keep you safe on this mission and here I am bleeding out, what are we going to do if someone finds us you ever think of that?”

“Steve I did think about it and I decided we had a better chance here than in the ocean all right? Now shut up so I can get out of this thing and look at your shoulder.  
You’ll feel better when we’re done wrapping it and you’ve warmed up some more.”

Tony stripped out of the wet suit and then went back to Steve and knelt down by his left shoulder and pressed the rags up to the bite marks the salt water had left them mostly clean already but they looked like they were going to need stitches if he wanted to truly stop the bleeding. “Okay Steve I’m going to need to sew these up so this might hurt a little but I’m sure you’ll be fine.” 

“Tony I trust you just do it.”

With that Tony threaded the needle, poured a little of the rubbing alcohol from the kit on the wound and stuck the needle into the skin around the first tooth mark like he’d seen the SHIELD agents do on him before. When he was done he didn’t think it looked too bad for a first try. Hopefully the medics would forgive him when they saw his handy work.

“I’m so sorry if you get scars from this.”

“They won’t be the first; I’m still really cold though.”

Tony wrapped his arm around him and felt himself be pulled closer.

“You’re so warm.”Steve whispered 

Tony could feel Steve’s holding him close and as he looked at Steve’s eyes he wondered why he was here in the first place. 

“Steve why did you volunteer for this I know you don’t like the ocean?”

“I couldn’t let you go by yourself,” he murmured. 

“I’m sure that they would have gotten someone else.”

“You would have liked that then you wouldn’t be trapped down here with me.”

“This isn’t your fault none of this is your fault Steve there’s no one I would rather be trapped here in this base with and not just because you’re a super strong and handsome guy.” 

“But...” 

“It’s not your fault, I could have easily been the one bitten by that shark and if that was the case I wouldn’t even be conscious so just be quiet alright it’s not your fault, none of this is.”

They both went silent for a few minutes after their outburst listening to see if they would hear anyone coming their way. After they heard nothing for around twenty minutes, Steve started talking again. “Tony I think we should go they most likely have figured out something is in the building."

“Alright I’ll try to find us both wet suits in here that way if we do see someone we should blend in better.”

After looking around their room a bit more he found a couple of suits hanging on the back wall behind some old lab coats and hazmat suits. 

After doing some tests on the suits to make sure they were in working condition. He swung back around to where Steve had been sitting to see that he was no longer sitting and had gotten up and was holding some new air tanks that he must have found. 

“Are they full?” questioned Tony.

“That’s what the dial says but just to be safe I think you should keep the full one off your suit and I’ll take the other part one and then well both take one of these other ones.” 

“I don’t like you not having two full ones but your plan makes sense. That way if one isn’t full we should still both have enough air to make it both up.”

“Ok, suit up then” Tony said remembering they were still just walking around in there boxers.

After putting on everything but their helmets the pair of them were ready to head out into the hallway and hopefully make it to the air lock without trouble.  
Steve put his ear to the door and listened for a bit. Then after hearing nothing he opened the door looked outside and nodded back to Tony and walked out. Tony followed him out and together they made their way down the hallways as silently as they could. 

At the air lock they ran into two guards but Steve threw a quick punch to the head to the first guard which led to a sickening rip as one of the stiches on his shoulder popped open. Tony winced at the noise as he threw an uppercut to the other guard’s jaw. As the man tried to hit him back he saw Steve grab the man and slam his head into the wall next to him. Luckily neither of the guards had had time to call for back up. They both hurried out into the airlock hoping no one was going to follow them back out into the water.

“I heard some of your stitches rip you sure you don’t need a break for a little bit? Tony questioned when they stopped to make sure they didn’t get the bends on their trip back up. 

“Yeah it should be fine they were already starting to heal when we left so I don’t think it’s bleeding anymore.”

“Man speed healing must be nice, well just let me know if we need to stop more often I know all this swimming must hurt it.”

“Really Tony, I’m fine let’s go.”

They continued on their way to the surface stopping every now and then. When they started to see the light at the surface and they knew they were almost there and they quickly climbed the last couple yards and got out onto the ladder waiting for them. 

Noticing Steve and Tony’s new attire several agents ran over and questioned what happened as Tony recounted their tale Steve stood in silence watching him. He noticed that Tony was changing details of his story to make Steve sound like the one who was the hero and not him who had to help Steve the whole time. 

“Now, Stark” he commented “I don’t think I would have made it back without your quick thinking down there.”

“Really Cap, you were the real hero the way you took out those soldiers with a hurt shoulder that was crazy.”

“If you two are done complimenting each other you can go change we’ll be back to the carrier in thirty minuets.”A Shield Agent told them.

“Rodger that, Tony, come on let’s go change.”

“But you look so nice in that Hydra suit,” Tony said with a chuckle as they began walking down below deck to the suite.

“You don’t look bad yourself Stark.” Steve replied as they opened the door. Once they were inside the room they stripped back out of the suits they had been in and started putting back on their civilian clothes. 

“Hey, Steve, about that kiss.” Tony said after he finished putting back on his pants. 

“I understand Tony you were just doing what you needed to keep me alive. You wouldn’t have done it unless you had to.” Steve said with the smallest bit of sadness in his voice.

“The thing is I could have tried something else there but I wanted to kiss you.”

Steve was silent for a bit and then said “So you wouldn’t mind if we did that again sometime?”

“How about now?” Tony said softly as he leaned over to Steve. 

Steve reached around and pulled Tony up to his chest and pressed their lips together, and it was even better now they weren’t in that frigid water.  
When they pulled away Steve said “I can’t decide whether I hate or love the ocean.”

“Why’s that?” Tony asked 

“It always wants kill me but it always brought me you.”  
“I’d say it’s love.” Tony said while leaning in for another kiss.


End file.
